A biologist shows the influence of wild species on our well-being and world, and how, even in places like our bedrooms, where we have most completely cleansed ourselves of nature, nature still clings to us–it always will.

We evolved in a wilderness of parasites, mutualists, and pathogens. But we no longer see ourselves as being part of nature and the broader community of life. In the name of progress and clean living, we have scrubbed much of nature off of our bodies, and have tried to remove whole kinds of life–parasites, bacteria, mutualists, and predators–to allow ourselves to live free of wild danger. Nature, in this new world, is the landscape outside, a kind of living painting that is pleasant to contemplate but also nice to have escaped.

The truth, though, is that while “clean living” has benefited us in some ways, it has also made us sicker in others, according to biologist Rob Dunn. We are trapped in bodies that evolved to deal with the dependable presence of hundreds of other species. As Dunn reveals, our modern disconnect from the web of life has resulted in unprecedented effects that immunologists, evolutionary biologists, psychologists and other scientists are only beginning to understand. Diabetes, autism, allergies, many anxiety disorders, autoimmune diseases, and even tooth, jaw and vision problems are increasingly plaguing bodies that have been removed from the ecological context in which they existed for millennia.

In this eye-opening, well-researched, and reasoned book, Dunn considers the crossroads at which we find ourselves. Through the stories of visionaries, Dunn argues that we can create a richer nature, one in which we choose to surround ourselves with species that benefit us, not just those that, despite us, survive.